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About this lesson
Paragraph format and alignment are important for proper document layout.
Exercise files
Download this lesson’s related exercise files.
Basic Paragraph Formats - Exercise.docx59.1 KB Basic Paragraph Formats - Exercise Solution.docx
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Quick reference
Basic Paragraph Formats
Home Ribbon, Paragraph Group
When to use
Use the Paragraph Alignment buttons when you want to align text with the left edge, right edge, both edges, or center align.
Instructions
- Click the line of text that you want to apply Paragraph Format to.
Click the Left Align button so the text is flush with the left margin. This is the default paragraph alignment. (Meaning, it’s how the computer displays it if you do not make changes.)
Click the Center Align button so the text is centered between both margins. Used to align titles over a report or story.
Click the Right Align button so the text is flush with the right margin. Use when you want text flush right on the document.
Click the Justify Align button so the text is flush with both margins. Used in a formal business or report document.
- 00:04 Let's talk about paragraph formats.
- 00:07 On the Home ribbon, about in the center is a group called Paragraph.
- 00:11 And everything in this particular group has to
- 00:15 do with the paragraph formats up until the hard return.
- 00:19 This symbol represents the hard return.
- 00:21 I'm going to click it just so
- 00:23 you can see what happens on my screen when we apply this.
- 00:26 When I activate it, look what happened,
- 00:28 I have a hard return at the end of the line Exercise.
- 00:30 Another at the end of this title, another three lines down into this paragraph.
- 00:35 So as you can see, because I turned on the codes, that button is called Show Codes.
- 00:40 Typically, I work with that button on all the time.
- 00:43 The polka dots in between the words, those are space bars.
- 00:46 And then this hard return represents the end of the paragraph, and
- 00:51 represents everything in this little group.
- 00:54 I can just click it once, it'll apply to the entire paragraph.
- 00:57 So for this lesson's focus, we're going to stay tuned to the Align Left,
- 01:01 the Center Line, the Right Line, noting the tool tips that pop up every time I
- 01:05 flip my mouse on these buttons, and then of course the Fully Justify.
- 01:09 Now if you use these a lot, you will want to memorize those buttons.
- 01:13 Me personally, I don't, I just use them once in a while.
- 01:16 All right, let's talk about the very first one, Align Left or ctrl + L.
- 01:20 So this is your standard alignment, we have a jagged right edge.
- 01:24 A jagged right edge assists the reader's eyes to go from line to line.
- 01:29 It's okay to do that, you see it all the time in storybooks, large manuscripts.
- 01:34 At this point, everything by default is aligned left.
- 01:38 It would be typical to hit my Tab key,
- 01:41 I'm going to press my Tab on my keyboard to push that over half an inch.
- 01:45 Let's move on to the next one, Align Center, now notice,
- 01:49 I'm not even selecting the entire paragraph.
- 01:51 I can just come up, float my mouse on the center button and click.
- 01:55 And it is center aligned.
- 01:57 Now this is typically used to center a title of a report or a story.
- 02:01 So I'll click into the next line, noting the hard return, even though there is
- 02:05 one line of text, doesn't matter, the computer sees it as a paragraph.
- 02:10 So I'll go ahead and hit that center again.
- 02:13 The next one, Align Right.
- 02:15 When we align a paragraph right, it's because we want to go flush right,
- 02:20 and then our left side would be jagged.
- 02:23 So I'll click into that paragraph, flip my mouse to the top, click on the right line.
- 02:28 And there we have it.
- 02:29 Typically, I'll use that for notes.
- 02:31 Maybe I'll use that for page numbers.
- 02:34 So I'll click into this note and write a line, as well.
- 02:37 And then we have the Fully Justified at the bottom.
- 02:40 A fully justified paragraph will align flush left, flush right,
- 02:44 and it will work out the spacing between the words,
- 02:46 there'll be slight adjustments in there, you won't even notice it.
- 02:50 So I'll come up to the top, click on the Fully Justified and there we are.
- 02:55 This is generally used in business letters,
- 02:58 magazine articles will have flush right edges.
- 03:01 All right, do you have to have those codes showing in order to apply these?
- 03:06 Absolutely not, that is a personal preference.
- 03:09 I prefer them on when I'm working in Word, but it does look busy, it does look messy.
- 03:14 So I'm going to turn those off, click and there they are off.
- 03:17 All right, go ahead and practice those on the exercise file.
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